#198 in Classics
Cranford
- 247
- Pages
- about 4.5 h
- Reading time
Affiliate link: buying through it supports BookRank at no extra cost to you.
Our view
“Cranford” is a gentle, quietly funny portrait of genteel society in a small English country town. Written as loosely linked episodes for Dickens’s magazine, it is driven by character more than plot, with comedy and small-town scandal in equal measure. Some readers find it slow to get into but end up won over by its warmth and its characters. It suits readers who like social comedy in a low key.
The view of the BookRank editors, written from readers’ ratings and comments. It does not affect the score or the book’s place in a ranking.
About the book
Cranford was first serialized in Charles Dickens’ magazine Household Words between 1851 and 1853. The structureless nature of the stories, and the fact that Gaskell was busy writing her novel Ruth at the time the Cranford shorts were being published, suggests that she didn’t initially plan for Cranford to be a cohesive novel. The short vignettes follow the activities of the society in the fictional small English country town of Cranford. Gaskell drew from her own childhood in Knutsford to imbue her settings and characters with a nostalgic quality in a time when the societies and styles portrayed were already going out of fashion. Though not especially popular at the time of publication, Cranford has since gained an immense following, including at least three television adaptations.
Where the score comes from
The sources average 7.7 across 79 ratings — not yet many, so the reader vote carries 35% of the weight and the rest pulls toward the Classics average of 7.7. That is how 7.7 comes out.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Library | 8.2 | 12 | 15% |
| Hardcover | 7.6 | 67 | 85% |
Frequently asked
How long is Cranford?
It has 247 pages — shorter than 56% of the ranked books in Classics.
In this book
Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.
If you liked this
The same shelf — Classics — and a score of 7.7, the closest to this book.
